With a smooth, practiced move, Mark pulled a long thin sword out of nowhere and brought it down on me. I caught it on the outside of my right arm and deflected it along the bone. My arm went numb as a fillet of flesh peeled off it. For a moment, Mark was over-extended. I tried to think of a way to take advantage of his extended reach, but his recovery was lightning fast. I tried to mount a mental offense against the shadow, but as stunned as I was, I couldn’t put it together.
There was a roar behind me and Dave the Bear flew over my head, took Mark’s sword through his shoulder and smacked into Mark with his entire weight. The two of them slid several feet back and slammed hard against the parapet wall. Dave smacked headfirst into the stone with Mark underneath him.
There was no way Mark could have survived that. I cried in rage and frustration, but was unable to stand on my shattered leg. Blood and gray bone protruded through my shin. I’d have to hop if I was going to move.
Jen came running up behind me. “Finn! Are you...oh shit!” Jen landed next to me panting hard.
I couldn’t spare her any attention because the mammoth bear in front of me was moving.
I stared in complete disbelief as Mark pushed a thousand pounds of unconscious bear off of himself and crawled free.
I couldn’t move so I only had one option. I formed a golden wall of force, pumped it with power and slammed it through Mark. Instead of pushing the shadow far enough to rip Mark’s soul in two, I stopped as soon as his aura flared white under the strain created by the unrelenting grip of Wendigota.
Mark screamed inarticulately, and tried to get to his feet. I created another blade of force and brought it down on Mark’s aura as close to the shadow as I could. My blade cleaved through both soul and shadow and the larger part of Mark’s aura smacked back to him while the rest disappeared into the hungry blackness of the shadow.
As quick as thought, I created a sphere of my will around the creature as it attempted to escape. There was no escape for it. I crushed it down to a mote. The feeling of damnation and hatred coming through my shield plunged through my mind like a dagger, but I didn’t relent. I pushed as hard as my power allowed. I tried to squeeze the vile thing right out of this universe, but I couldn’t do it. It remained. It squirmed, quailed, and raged against my will, but it didn’t have the power to stop me. It was time to bind it again.
I pulled on the power at my command and wove a cage around it. The cage was unbreakable, but I needed one more thing.
“Jen! Help me! I need an anchor.”
She didn’t even hesitate. She offered me a small part of her aura and I cut it off. I moved with confidence and singular concentration and soon had the shadow’s new prison complete.
I took several deep breaths to try and bring myself down from the mania that had just possessed me.
On my third breath, a spear of fire pierced through me. I screamed as it burned within me and pinned my mind down like a bug on a cork-board. The coruscating pain disrupted every attempt I made to think.
Spring!
She didn’t answer my call.
“I’ll give you ten seconds make your peace with God before I send you to your eternal judgment.”
Mémèr’s aged-cracked voice gave me an external direction for the pain, and I was able to turn my head from where I’d fallen face first on the blessedly cold stone. Mémèr stooped above me. The righteous fire in her eyes echoed inside of me. The spear of her will expanded within me and threatened to tear me apart.
“No...” I managed to croak out. “Don’t...”
“May God have mercy on your soul, Finn Morgenstern.”
I screamed at the new, and previously unimaginable, pain.
Mémèr was ripping me apart, and I couldn’t stop her. In blind panic, I used Wendigota’s cage as a shield against the spike of her power. The cage unraveled and Wendigota exploded free.
Instantly the spike disintegrated and swirled into the oblivion of the shadow’s endless hunger. Now it was the old woman’s turn to scream. The shadow eagerly flowed back to the source and quickly attempted to engulf her. But, she had nearly a century of experience using the power of the shards, and she was by no means defenseless. She thrust pieces of her soul through the shadow and then proceeded to rip it apart as she had started to do with me.
I tried to bring myself back together and watched in amazement as the shadow was shredded under her assault. Could she have been right from the beginning? If she could fight off the shadow, then she should have the caduceus, not me. My arrogance had blinded me to the possibility that another person might be able to do what I couldn’t.
Then, my hope died stillborn when I watched what was happening. Every spike of power Mémèr used was soon swallowed by the small shreds of darkness. The brightness of her soul dimmed under implacable onslaught of the shadow.
In an instant, her aura was coated in blackness. Despite my exhaustion, I couldn’t let that happen, so once again I pulled my power together and formed a barrier to the shadow. The pain in my mind was excruciating. Mémèr had done to my spirit what Mark had done to my leg. I called for Spring once again and this time she answered.
I’ve got you, go!
I pulled up a shield and slammed it toward Mémèr’s shuddering form. The shadow somehow sensed the presence of its impending doom and Mémèr’s aura flared to life around the blackness. Somehow, Wendigota was using her soul as a shield, but it didn’t stop me, I ripped the shadow off Mémèr. I felt the rending of her soul splash through me, and the sickness it caused nearly broke my concentration. I caught myself and I closed my shield over Wendigota and fought to bring it under control once again. It used the power it had consumed from the Delacroix matriarch to assault my will. The cold of death, of oblivion, penetrated into my mind, and I screamed with the agony of each advance.
The pain smashed against my tattered control, and I reached the end of my endurance. Nothing I could do would stand against the pain and fatigue assaulting me.
Finn! It’s weakening, hang on just a little more.
I can’t! It hurts!
Look! Colette’s here! Feel her? Draw upon her strength.
I reached desperately for Colette and found her. I drew her power within me. The fire I pulled upon burned away the cold, but the pain of it staggered me and threatened to consume me.
Then Jen was there and she stabilized me, gave me strength I didn’t have before. With that base, I tapped the offered fire from Colette, channeled it, changed it, and I found the stamina to continue.
I pulled the shadow away from Mémèr, and her aura came with it. Somehow, the monster had cleaved her from her body, but I didn’t have time to think about it, I drew more heavily on Colette and tightened my grip around Wendigota. Even with three of us, it was still far more powerful than it had ever been, and it was far from defeated.
My mind reeled from the cold hunger and rage, which clawed away at my new reserves. I could feel Jen struggling to hold me together as I fought. I could feel Colette buffering me from the worst of the beast’s ravages, taking the brunt of its attacks, but it wasn’t enough. I needed more from her, so I called upon our link for more power, more support.
Her presence doubled in my mind, and she assaulted the shadow with me. Together, we overcame it and I began to wrap it into a new prison of force and will. As I struggled to finish the last bit of my weaving, Colette’s presence had diminished to a whisper, but she offered the last of her strength for the binding.
Take it!
She commanded,
I pray that God will forgive my arrogance. Tell her never to forget that God’s purpose must always be served, whether we recognize it or not. We cannot always know, we can but pray to be the instruments of His will. Now take it!
Sudden doubt speared through me. Something wasn’t right. I balked at taking the proffered gift. Somehow, once again, I wasn’t comprehending what I was truly doing with my power.
I told Colette,
Something’s wrong! I can’t!
Take it! It is the last service I may give to God! Take it
,
young man, and please do not judge me too harshly.
Mémèr?
I was talking to Mémèr! Hers was the power I’d been using. Hers was the soul shoring up my will.
Now! Before it is too late!
I did what I had to. I used the last of Mémèr’s power to complete the cage and then I used the ragged remains of her soul to bind it to the Caduceus.
Then, there was nothing but silence. No, there was silence but it was embedded in ubiquitous pain, emptiness, and the distant hatred of Wendigota within its cage echoed through me. I don’t ever remember being so tired.
It’s good work Finn. It will hold.
Thank you Spring. Thank you Jen... Thank you Mémèr.
Jen’s presence dropped away as I looked at what I’d wrought. I double-checked that Spring was right, and then I turned outward to find my friends.
Mark was standing over me, his sword once again in his hand. He was shaking. With exhaustion or rage, I couldn’t tell. I didn’t care. The blackness of oblivion imploded around me.
When I woke up again, I was cocooned in warm blankets and a wall of sound. My mind felt hollow and sore and my body empty. I couldn’t seem to bring any thoughts to bear. I just felt a vague sense of loss and regret. I knew what had happened to me, but it seemed very far away.
When I looked around, I seemed to be in a darkened cabin of what had to be a private jet. I was on some sort of bed that occupied one side of the cabin. I managed to turn my head and saw Jen, peacefully sleeping on a fully reclined chair. Across from me, in another stretcher, Dave lay prone with thick bandages across his chest and a neck support to keep him from turning his head. A quick check, and I found the shadow’s cage still within me, pulsing with the song of the Caduceus and Wendigota’s hatred. I reached up my hand to touch the source of that song, but it wasn’t in its accustomed place. I knew it wasn’t lost because I could still feel it. I patted around till I found it tucked under my armpit close to the wall.
Spring?
It’s about time you woke up. I’m getting tired of being the sole occupant of this shell.
Sorry.
I’m used to you and your slacker ways by now.
I saw something within her.
You knew.
I felt betrayed.
...Yes, I knew she wasn’t Colette, but you wouldn’t have trusted Mémèr, and we would have died.
I didn’t have the energy to pursue it. I returned my attention to Jen and tried to call her. I failed. I could only make a whispered croaking sound, not enough to be heard over the noise of the jet’s passage through the air. But, Jen woke up.
“Finn!” She scrambled out of the blanket she been wrapped in, jumped up to my bed, and put her warm hand on my face. There were gray circles under her eyes, her hair had frizzed out and she had a bruise on one cheek, but she was alive. I thanked God for that.
“Finn, how are you feeling?”
I worked my lips around to making words. “M’hungry.”
She smiled gently and said, “I’m so glad.” She pointed to a bag labeled “sucrose” that was hanging by my bed with a tube that ran down to my arm. “I guess an all-sugar diet wasn’t enough to hold you over.”
“Are you...? Is she...?” Everything faded out.
The next thing I knew, I’d been raised to a semi-upright position and Jen was encouraging me to eat some sort of pudding. It was awesome.
Another transition and it was day outside the cabin and Jen was there to feed me something that tasted like a warm milkshake. It was heavenly.
“What happened?”
“You did it.”
“Colette?”
Jen’s face grew a little guarded. “I’m pretty sure she’s alive.” That was a weight off my chest.
“Are you okay?”
She smiled, “I didn’t have it near as bad as you or Dave. After helping you, I kept my protection up too long, passed out on the parapet, and whacked my head, but nothing serious.”
“I’m so glad. I couldn’t take it if you were hurt again.”
Her shining eyes returned my sentiment.
I struggled to think. “Where are we?”
“We’re almost home. This was one of Matt Smith’s jets. Mark’s up front playing pilot. After you fixed him, he managed to call off his men and get us all out of there. The police did show up, but hit with a few strong suggestions, they went home to bed.”
“How many people died?”
“I think that the Delacroix lost several people, and Mark lost a bunch of Smith’s goons, but I’m not sure of the numbers. Mark told me that he hadn’t used a fatal gas. He’d wanted to take as many of the Delacroix alive as possible—future food for the shadow.”
I didn’t have the energy to react to that. I supposed I should have been happy that it hadn’t been a complete slaughter. Still, I wonder which of my...Colette’s aunts, uncles, and cousins were dead. I knew Mémèr was one of them. I’d killed her after all. It hurt to remember Colette’s love for grandmother and it hurt worse to know how much pain I’d caused Colette. Reflexively, I looked for Spring.
Welcome back
,
my sun.
Thanks. Are you okay?
I think so. I think Granny did us some permanent damage, but I’m not certain.
That was seriously disconcerting.
Well, at least we’re alive.
And baby-sitting Satan’s spawn again.
Yippee skippee.
“Dave?” I asked looking over at his bandaged form.
“He’s going to live,” said Jen. “He injured his neck and Mark’s sword did a lot of damage. The docs said his neck should be fine, and we hope he can heal the damage from his sword wound. He knocked himself out cold, so we had to drag him out of there as well. He’s woken since and been pretty lucid, so it looks like his brain is no more damaged than it was to begin with.”
I had to smile at that.
“Can I have some more of that shake? Maybe a fried bologna sandwich?”
That got the smile I was hoping for and got me the drink as well. Alas, they had no bologna.